RUSTON -- Louisiana Tech senior guard Erica Smith-Taylor and her professional boxer husband Jermain Taylor are expecting the couples first child in late November, which means the Wheatley, Ark., native will miss the first part of the upcoming basketball season.

Smith-Taylor, who earned second team All-Western Athletic Conference honors and league all-defensive accolades during her junior season, said she is excited about becoming a mother but is also very determined about returning to the Lady Techster team by the start of WAC play in late December or early January.

?I?m very excited, I?m nervous and I?m happy,? said Smith-Taylor, who said she plans on dropping the hyphenated part of her last name and going strictly by Taylor during her senior year. ?Jermain and I are both very happy. I do want to return (to the court in time for conference play). I?m determined to do that.?

Smith-Taylor, who married Jermain in July of 2003, said she has already hired a professional trainer to help keep her in the best shape possible during her pregnancy.

As a junior at Louisiana Tech, the 21-year-old averaged 13.8 points, 6.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 3.2 steals per game while helping the Lady Techsters to a 29-3 mark and a regional semifinal appearance in the 2004 NCAA Tournament.

Smith-Taylor exploded during the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, scoring a career-high 29 points in Tech?s 81-77 first round win over Montana before coming back two nights later and scoring 30 points in an 81-64 victory against Texas Tech. During the three games in the tournament, Smith-Taylor averaged 23.3 points per contest while hitting 53 percent of her three-pointers.

With the loss of three senior starters to graduation in Trina Frierson, Amisha Carter and Amber Obaze, who combined to score 44.7 points and pull down 21.9 rebounds per game last year, Smith-Taylor was expected to be the Lady Techsters No. 1 offensive threat. Now third-year head coach Kurt Budke must find a way to replace those three plus Smith-Taylor during the first seven weeks of the season.

?There is no question we will miss her early in the season,? Budke said. ?I compare this to if you took Alana Beard off of Duke or Diana Taurasi off of Connecticut. If you take the best player off of any talented team, it would affect them but the team can still be successful. We have to have some of our younger, less experienced players step up and get the job done.

?We are happy for Erica and Jermain. Obviously, this is a blessing for their young family and we pray everything goes well with the pregnancy. If anyone can successfully come back in a short amount of time it is Erica.?

When the Techsters open the 2004-05 season in early November, Budke will suit up only 28 percent of his offense from a year ago with the lone returning starter being junior point guard Tasha Crain.

Tech welcomes five newcomers to the mix this year, including red-shirt freshman Nastassja Levingston who sat out the 03-04 year.